Latest powercuts update

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the region’s power network, has successfully restored electricity supplies for around 28,000 customers after Storm Hector caused power cuts for 34,300 customers. Since around 3am this morning, high winds have caused damage to the electricity network causing power cuts for customers predominantly in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham areas. Engineers have successfully restored customers’ power by diverting electricity through alternative routes on its network, wherever possible, and are carrying out necessary repairs to the network where required.

Andy Bilclough, Northern Powergrid’s head of delivery: city zones, said:

“We’ve been closely monitoring Storm Hector over the last few days, ensuring we were ready to respond if the forecasted strong winds affected our network. “Our teams have already restored power to some 28,000 customers and we’d like to reassure those still affected that our engineers will continue to work until our remaining 3,300 customers affected by Storm Hector have their lights back on. “We invest around GBP1 million every day on maintaining and upgrading our network but weather like Storm Hector, which is more unusual at this time of year, can cause damage to our power network as result of fallen trees and windborne debris coming into contact with our overhead network.

“Whilst the worst of the weather has now passed, we will continue to closely monitor the weather forecast.”